Roger Hulsey, left, 69, of Jasper, Ala., and Mike Barnett, right, 61, of Springville, Ala., both retired coal miners, take part in a protest at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, for protection of their pension rights. Unionized coal and steel miners, teamsters, bakers, tobacco workers and others fear the loss of their pensions. (AP)

By Susan Tompor

Tribune News Service

DETROIT – Marsha Rarick, 66, worked 21 years driving a truck and hauling cars, mostly Jeeps out of Toledo, Ohio.

Rarick, who retired at the end of 2016, is collecting around $2,400 month from a Teamsters pension plan that’s set to run out of money in a few years. She found herself Friday in a packed union hall at Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit fighting for her pension check.

“I’m worried it will be cut altogether,” said Rarick, who lives in Toledo.

“I worked really hard, and now to lose the pension I was working for would be really devastating,” she said.

Plenty of pensions created through collective bargaining agreements between a union and several employers in a given industry are on the verge of crashing. Many of these multiemployer plans cover union workers in construction, retail, mining and transportation.

The potentional crisis would affect 66 Connecticut residents, according to the website for the troubled, Illinois-based Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. Collectively, those Connecticut retirees receive $458,665 per year. The value of the pensions at risk is over $5.3 million.

There are nine local Teamsters unions across Connecticut, including one in Waterbury, Local #677, at 1871 Baldwin St

PELOSI IN DETROIT: On Friday, a town hall was held in Detroit to draw support for a pension fix, bringing together hundreds of retirees and active union members; politicians, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn; and union leaders such as Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa and Gary Jones, the new president of the UAW.

Dingell is part of the bipartisan, 16-member Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Plans, which has a statutory deadline of Nov. 30 to provide recommendations to address the looming pension crisis.

“Failure is not an option,” Dingell said before the event. “You see this room? These are people’s lives.”

Jan Kachur, 75, walked around the room with a cardboard sign saying “Retired Teamster Will Work for Food.”

Kachur, who lives in Deerfield near Dundee, said he’s really not looking for a job. But he is fearful of what cuts might hit his $2,600-a-month pension check if no solution is found. His wife, who is 63, continues to work at a job where she hasn’t built up pension credits for about the past 10 years, so what she collects when she retires will be limited.

Central States faces the largest of all multiemployer plan shortfalls with about $17.2 billion in unfunded liabilities. Central States is expected to be insolvent by 2025.

A few years ago, the Central States plan proposed a strategy that called for drastic reductions in retirement payouts – some looking at seeing pensions cut in half. But that plan fell apart in 2016 after political pressure. The U.S. Treasury Department ultimately rejected the proposal submitted by Central States – much to the relief of many retirees and active workers.

Many union members and Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, voiced support for the passage of the Butch Lewis Act introduced in late 2017. The legislation is named for Butch Lewis, the former president of Teamster Local 100 in Ohio who fought to save pensions and died in 2015. Some say that fight contributed to his poor health.

The proposed legislation would create a Pension Rehabilitation Administration within the U.S. Treasury Department. The agency would issue bonds in order to finance low-interest, 30-year loans to assist pension plans in financial distress.

It continues to remain unclear whether the bipartisan committee ultimately will agree on a solution or one that includes the Butch Lewis Act.

Pension plans ended up in financial distress for several reasons. The stock market fallout in the early 2000s – followed by the financial crisis in 2008 – hurt investment returns. Some investments were mismanaged. Many plans recovered but a significant number did not. Some companies went out of business, leaving behind unfunded benefits.

Up to 1.5 million Americans – or a bit more than one in 10 – participating in multiemployer plans are at risk and covered by pensions systems that could run out of money.

– Harrison Connery contributed to this report.

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